Naruto of the Sound
by Michael Callistus
Summary: Naruto is taken to the Sound Village by Orochimaru, but a mission to Konoha causes him and his comrades to reconsider their loyalties. NaruHaku, ZakuKinDosu, character crossovers Eva, Pokemon, Ouran .
1. Chapter 1

Naruto of the Sound

By Michael Callistus

Summary: AU, Naruto is taken in by Orochimaru and trained as a Sound Ninja, but a mission to Konoha causes him and his comrades to question their loyalties.

Description: This is a Sound!Naruto fic, but there will be no NaruTayu anywhere in this fic. At all. However, there will be: Character crossovers (Evangelion, Pokemon and Ouran Host Club), NaruHaku, ZakuKinDosu, and a lot more Sound Genin than you may remember.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, it is the property of Masahi Kishimoto all rights reserved.

Chapter 1: An Invitation from the Sound

Naruto Uzumaki hugged the wall of the side alley, as two furious sounding Leaf Chunin leapt passed, momentarily blocking out the sunlight shining down the alleyway as they searched for him. All around Naruto could hear the clamour of the Shinobi on the hunt for him after his latest prank. They were yelling at him about what they were going to do when they caught up with him, and Naruto tried to ignore their threats as he waited until the coast was clear. With luck if he could keep out of their way until nightfall then they'd give up and, and with even more luck they'd have forgotten all about him by morning.

The alley in which he was hiding was dark, and filled with shadows. He hardly needed to use the fake wall disguise he'd brought, and after a few moments without hearing anything Naruto cautiously lowered the canvas and peaked around him.

To see a chunin with long white hair and a handsome bishonen face standing at the entrance to the alley looking straight at him. Mizuki sensei, Naruto thought as his blood froze. They'd caught up with him, man he had been so stupid. They were going to kill him this time.

Naruto dropped the disguise and stood facing the academy instructor, trying to judge whether he could make it to the rooftop before the Sensei caught up with him. If he could make this a chase again he had a good chance of outrunning the pursuit, he'd done it before enough times, but if Mizuki caught him mid leap he wouldn't stand a chance.

His face showing nothing, except perhaps a little disappointment; Mizuki took a step closer to Naruto but then, abruptly, he stopped. He looked at something above Naruto's head, and then abruptly he turned away. He didn't say anything, didn't show what made him forget all about the blonde troublemaker right in front of him, he just left; bounding up into the air and out of sight.

_The hell?_ Naruto thought, scratching the back of his spiky blonde head as he tried to work out what was going on.

"You have potential boy," a soft, sibilant voice said from behind him.

Naruto spun around to see a man looming up before him. At least he thought it was a man, in the darkness he seemed almost like some kind of apparition. His face was white, but his hair was long and black. He was dressed in long, flowing robes but what made Naruto gasp was the stranger's eyes, which were exactly like the eyes of a serpent.

"Yes, you have great potential within you, boy," the stranger repeated in that same hissing voice.

"Who are you?" Naruto said. "Did you make Mizuki Sensei go away?"

The stranger laughed, "You will find out who I am soon enough. And yes, Mizuki knows when he ought to make himself scarce. But that isn't what's important now, what matters is the opportunity that I am offering you?"

"Opportunity?"

"Indeed, I collect people like you Naruto: outcasts, people who have been rejected through no fault of their own, people who show great promise that is ignored by those around them are blind to what true potential is. I help those people to realise their great promise, I help them to become strong. Come with me Naruto, and I shall help you achieve power beyond your imaginings. Or you can stay here, where the children laugh at you and the adults hate you for something that isn't even your fault. The choice, is yours."

Naruto thought about it, and the more he thought the harder a time he had thinking what there was for him in this stupid village. Nobody cared about him, nobody wanted to know him. Everyone ignored him when they saw him on the street, the ones who didn't yell at him that he was a freak who should die or go away. No one in the Academy liked him, not the instructors or the other students. None of them would be sorry to see him go. What was there for him here? No friends, no family, nothing. And from the sound of it, the place this guy came from was full of people just like him. Maybe, just maybe, he could get a fresh start there, wherever it was, where nobody would shun him for some reason he didn't even know why. And maybe, just maybe, that was a chance worth taking.

The stranger chuckled, "As I said, it's up to you boy. Stay here and hide until they find you, or follow me, and let me help you become strong."

By this point, for Naruto, the choice had become no choice at all, "I'll come."

The stranger smiled, "I thought you might."

* * *

"Lord Hokage! Lord Hokage!" Izuma burst into the Hokage's office, brandishing a scrunched up piece of paper in his hands. "Lord Hokage, the nine tailed fox has gone!"

"Gone?" Sarutobi stood up, a sudden sense of dread threatening to overwhelm him. "What do you mean, how can Naruto have just disappeared?"

"His apartment has been cleared out, Lord Hokage," Izuma said, taking a nervous gulp. "And we found this there."

Slowly, Sarutobi reached out and took the paper from the chuunin's unresisting hand and read on it the confirmation of his worst fears.

_Sarutobi Sensei,_

_How kind of you to leave your nine tails lying around for me to pick up. Rest assured I'll take better care of young Naruto then you ever did._

_Yours_

_Orochimaru._

As Sarutobi sagged a little in despair, having never felt older in his entire life, he began to wonder if there was any way that Konoha could possibly recover from this disaster.

Or whether there was any way that he could possibly redeem himself for allowing it to happen.

_Minato forgive me, for I have failed you utterly. _

* * *

The Village Hidden in the Sound wasn't a real village at all. Certainly not like the Leaf Village. There was no actual village at all, in fact when they got there all Naruto could see was large square building half sunk into the ground, with a few steps leading downwards into a dark and gaping entrance. Nothing about it looked very impressive or imposing; in fact as Naruto looked around it all looked like a bit of a dump. Certainly there was no Ramen shop anywhere in sight.

Lord Orochimaru, standing beside him, must have been able to read his thoughts for he chuckled, "Everything we need is underground, Naruto, for secrecy and protection."

"Oh," Naruto said, though it still didn't explain why there wasn't, you know, a village in the so called Village Hidden in the Sound. "Right."

"The Leaf Village has gotten soft," Orochimaru said. "They have forgotten that the true purpose of a Hidden Village is as a fortress for Shinobi, invisible, impregnable. By letting a village build up around them, the Shinobi of the leaf have robbed themselves of both secrecy and ease of defence. Foolish really, a lesson I do not intend to forget so lightly. Now come, our return is most eagerly awaited."

Orochimaru led the way down the steps towards the half submerged entrance to the Sound Village, and the two of them had only gotten half way before two ninja appeared before them with a swoosh, as if they had come out of thin air or something. One of them had two white haired heads, one of which looked like it was sleeping while the other looked down at Naruto with a sardonic look on his face. The second guy was even more of a weirdo, he had six arms hanging down by his side!

"What is this, a village of freaks or something?" Naruto said.

The white haired guy with two heads laughed, "Pretty much, yes. But then you'd know all about that, wouldn't you, nine tailed fox?"

Naruto swallowed. Orochimaru Sensei had told him all about the nine tailed fox that the Fourth Hokage had sealed inside him, and the stupendous power that he would possess if he could learn to harness the fox's chakra as his own, and it only increased his sense that the decision to put Konoha behind him had been the right one. Those jerks, blaming him for something that had never been his fault, or his decision. What did they think he was, some kind of monster! Even so, finding that everyone here knew about him and what he was came as a bit of a shock.

The freak with six arms laughed, "Everyone knows about you, kid, you're the jewel in the crown."

"For now," the two headed man said, barely audibly.

Orochimaru chuckled, "Sakon and Kidomaru here are two of my strongest shinobi. You could learn a lot from them, Naruto, but first your fellow students are waiting for you."

As Naruto followed Orochimaru into the Village Hidden in the Sound, he reflected that while this might be a village full of freaks; that meant that at least he wouldn't be the only one any more. And that was a good thought to hold on to.

* * *

The student quarters of the Hidden Sound where little more than a long row of bunk beds stacked up in a airy hall that looked like a kind of underground warehouse. No windows, only one door in and out, dull sandstone walls lit by the light of flickering torches. And the beds lining the walls. And the people dossing around them, not doing very much of anything.

As Naruto stepped in through the open doorway his impression that this really was a village full of freaks was half dispelled by the normality of most of the people around him. Most of them anyway, there was still that one guy sitting there covered in bandages like some kind of mummy. But he was the exception that proved the rule, because after a guy with six arms and another with two heads the Sound Genin proved looked reassuringly like normal humans.

There was one guy who looked a couple of years older than Naruto, with black eyes and wild brown hair who had looked up sharply as Naruto entered, and was staring at him with veiled hostility mixed in with curiousity.

Lying on her bed across from him was a girl with incredibly long black hair that reached down past her waist. Next to her was the guy covered in bandages.

Standing back straight against the wall of the barrack room, staring vacantly into nothingness, was an albino girl with blue hair cropped short, and distinctive red eyes. Nothing about her was commonplace, in fact she seemed to come with an aura of exoticism that hung about her like perfume. Naruto wasn't used to thinking of girls that way, but it was kind of hard to notice that she was wearing a skin tight white catsuit that showed off every curve of her body.

"Avert your eyes, you perv!" snapped the third girl, with red hair tied in a sideways pony tail.

Lastly there were two more boys, sitting back to back on the floor. One was tall, one of the tallest guys Naruto had ever seen, with short black hair and a grim but expressionless face. His companion, on the other hand, was absolutely tiny, had fluffy blond hair, and was smiling peacefully as he dozed, a pink stuffed bunny held tight in his arms.

"Um, hi everybody," Naruto began nervously. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I-"

"Yeah, you just got here, new acquisition by Lord Orochimaru, blah blah, whatever," the older kid with the wild brown hair got up off his bunk and strolled over to Naruto. "Listen kid, my name's Zaku Abumi and from now on I'm your Senpai; that means you do whatever I say, got that? Now go get me something to eat, I'm starving."

The girl with the long black hair laughed.

"What?" Naruto said. "I'm not your goddamned slave, get your own food if you're hungry."

Zaku growled, his hands balling into fists by his side, "You want me to kick your ass, is that it you little brat?"

"Like you could," Naruto said, making fists of his own as he instinctively felt that this was some sort of test that he had to pass if he was going to make anything of himself here in the Sound Village.

"Think you're so tough punk! We'll have to do something about that attitude!" Zaku yelled, as he went for Naruto swinging.

"Don't underestimate me!" Naruto shouted, charging to intercept.

* * *

When the dust settled, Naruto's face was a morass of bruises and he groaned faintly as he lay against the wall. But Zaku, sitting against the other wall taking great gasping breaths, wasn't much better. He had a black eye, a cut lip and his nose was looking in a very awkward position.

"You doe kid," Zaku paused, and rolled the eye that wasn't bruised and swollen. "A little helb, someone?"

The girl with the long black hair sighed as she got up and strolled over to Zaku, grabbing his nose and pulling forcefully back into place.

"Aaaargh!" Zaku yelled. "Damn it Kin, I asked you to set it, not pull it off."

"Serves you right for breaking it in the first place," Kin smiled as she sauntered back to her bunk.

Zaku glared at her retreating back before returning his attention to Naruto, "Not bad kid, not bad at all."

"My name is Naruto," Naruto said.

"Yeah, you said already," Zaku said. "I'm Zaku, the angel of sweetness over there is Kin Tsuchi-"

"Bite me," Kin said.

"I wish."

Kin gave Zaku the finger without looking up.

Zaku laughed, "Dosu Kinuta is the mummy over there, while the statue's name is Rei Ayanami. Don't try to talk to her she won't say much to you. Then that's Kasumi sitting over there." He gestured with his head towards the red headed girl, "And then out of the last two, the big guy is Takashi Morinozuka- call him Mori Senpai, everyone does- and the little one is Mizkuni Haninozuka, call him Honey Senpai, and remember he's older than he looks."

Zaku grinned, a feral smile crossing his lips, "Hey everybody, say hello to Naruto!"

Mori turned his head and said, in a gruff bass voice, "Hi."

"Naru-chan! You want to go have some cake with me?" Honey yelled out cheerfully.

"Welcome to the club, kid," Zaku said. "Just act weird every now and then and you'll fit right in."

And Naruto, in spite of the bruises covering his face, laughed, for he knew that finally he had found somewhere he belonged.


	2. Team Naruto Deploys

Chapter 2: Team Naruto Deploys

Naruto's footfalls echoed down the shadowy corridors as he walked past the rows of mysterious doors lining each side of the walkway. He'd lived here for a few years now and he still didn't know where half of those doors led. Kidumaro Sensei said there were some cases where it was best not to ask.

Just behind him, trailing slightly, Rei followed in his wake, gliding effortlessly without any sound at all. She may not have been the talkative type, or the smiling type, but she certainly knew how to move silently.

Naruto was dressed in Sound Ninja grey, complete with the urban camouflage scarf common to shinobi of the sound. He wore a ninja blade on his back, not as big as Mori-senpai's katana but big enough for someone his height, and it was specially made to harness his Wind Chakra. His head was covered by a black balaclava complete with Sound forehead protector, which he wore to cover his distinctive hair in case he ever had to run into anybody from the Leaf Village. Naruto wasn't sure that any of them had cared enough to remember him, but Lord Orochimaru commanded and who was Naruto Uzumaki to question him? Just another Sound Genin, albeit one of the most powerful.

Correction, the Nine Tailed Fox he carried inside him was more powerful that any of his fellow Genin. The Nine Tails was probably more powerful than Orochimaru himself.

That was why he was on the two man squad, Naruto thought anyway. He had the nine tails, and Rei was no pushover herself, together they could be counted on to handle things that would normally require a three man squad plus sensei to take care of.

Of course, none of the Sound Genin teams where what you would call average squads, the ones who didn't have kekkei genkai all had surgical advancements provided by the latest of Lord Orochimaru's scientific developments, but even considering all that, Team Naruto was pretty bad-ass even by their standards.

Rei followed, silent as if it had been a one man squad. She was still dressed in a white catsuit, only now it was just a little bit bigger and had blue and orange trimmings to go with it. Naruto thought it was kind of funny, he'd gotten out of the neon clothing and into something more stealthy, only to find that his teammate was still dead set on waving a great big sign above her head. Oh well, what could you do?

Well, fight like hell if anybody tried to come after you, obviously, but other than that, what could you do?

They finally reached the end of the dimly lit corridor, the grand doors that marked the entrance to Orochimaru's throne room. Tayuyah and Jirobo where on guard, the slender redhead standing in stark contrast to the big guy on the other door.

"Oh great, it's the goddam punk patrol," Tayuyah said, rolling her eyes in disdain.

"Cut 'em a break Tayuyah, if Lord Orochimaru didn't want 'em around he wouldn't have brought 'em here in the first place."

"OK big boy, in the first place it's them not fucking 'em. For someone who likes to rag me about language you don't half like to butcher it yourself."

"There's a difference between dropping a couple of letters once in a while and putting an expletive in between every second word."

"What, just because I'm a fucking girl you think I should act all quiet and fucking demure? You want me to be like that goddam doll over there?" Tayuyah gestured angrily at Rei. "Shit. Well fuck you you fat sexist bastard, I'll say whatever the hell I want whenever the fuck I want to say it."

"You know if somebody ever invents a turn the air blue jutsu you'll be well in. And don't worry, I gave up any hope of you being at all ladylike a long time ago."

If Naruto had been waiting with anybody else to go in this would have been amusing. Last year Zaku had started a book on whether or not Tayuyah and Jirobo would ever get together, Naruto had put a fair bit on the fact that they would, along with Kasumi and Honey-senpai. Dosu and Kin had bet on it never happening, and Rei and Mori-senpai had been too disinterested to bet either way. So it would have been fun to watch their reactions to all this, and see what everyone thought about how safe their money was. If he had been waiting with anyone else but Rei, who looked exactly as she did all the rest of the time: with an expression somewhere between abject misery and couldn't care less.

"You know what, screw you you fat slob, I don't give a rat's ass what you think about me because I think that you are a-"

"Um, sensei?" Naruto said, using the honorific diplomatically as a way to get on Tayuyah's goodside. Besides, she had taught him a bit about genjutsu so she probably deserved it.

"Oh, right, the punk and the doll," Tayuyah said. "Yeah, you can go in, though what Lord Orochimaru wants you for I've got no damn idea."

She and Jirobo pushed the doors open, and Naruto and Rei stepped into Orochimaru's throne room.

The lord of the Sound himself sat resplendent on his serpent throne, smirking as he looked down from the dais upon his servants. The rest of the room was rather spartan and nondescript, except for the fact that it confirmed to the same dimly lit motif that seemed to be a décor theme around the Sound Village.

Naruto knelt before Orochimaru, and Rei did likewise a moment later.

"Naruto," Orochimaru said in his soft, sibilant voice.

"Lord Orochimaru."

"Rei."

"My lord," it was weird, but out of the corner of his eye Naruto could have sworn he saw Rei smiling.

"You have both become formidable shinobi under my care, you have a respectable array of ninjutsu at your command, and after all that is why we are called ninja, as some imbeciles have allowed themselves unwisely to forget. But, skilled as you both are, your squad is under manned. Which is why one of the objectives of the mission I am about to assign to you will be to recruit a new squad member. A squad leader in fact."

"Squad leader?" Naruto's head snapped up. "But my lord, I-"

"Have acted as squad leader on a temporary basis," Orochimaru said. "And the temporary timescale will soon expire. Is that a problem, Naruto?"

Naruto may have liked being squad leader, but he liked being a member of the Sound Village even more, and this was the man to whom he owed everything he had. He bowed his head once more, "No, Lord Orochimaru."

"Good. Naruto, Rei, I am assigning you a mission to the Land of Waves."

"The Land of Waves?" Naruto said.

"A collection of islands off the coast of the Land of Fire," Orochimaru went on. "Currently it is in a state of considerable unrest, a man named Gato is attempting to take control of the islands and is being covertly resisted by various disaffected citizens. But that is of little importance. What is important is the fact that, according to my information, Gato has hired two rogue ninja to round out his private army: Zabuza Momochi and his student Haku. I would like them to both become my guests here in the village hidden in the sound."

"So that is our mission," Rei said in those cold tones of hers. "To find Zabuza and Haku and bring them back?"

"Not completely," Orochimaru said. "This Gato is a very self-important little man, who seems to believe that having money is enough to give him a right to power. Foolishness, power comes only by being powerful, by possessing jutsu enough to bend others to your will and break those who will not bend. The very fact that he employs Shinobi who could kill him without a thought proves his weakness beyond all doubt. Now if this petty buffoon where to die, my agents in the Land of Waves would be in a favourable position to pick up the pieces of his commercial empire, the revenue from which will be very useful to our cause. I hope that you understand."

_Objective one: recruit the rogue ninja. Objective two: assassinate Gato. Got it,_ "Perfectly, my lord."

"Excellent. And one other thing. My intelligence also tells me that those dissidents I mentioned earlier have hired shinobi from the Leaf Village to protect them. If it should come to it Naruto, I hope that a reunion would not be too unpleasant an experience for you?"

Though his face was hidden behind his balaclava, Naruto gave a savage, feral grin, "I'm looking forward to it already, my lord."

"Excellent. In that case, I see no reason for you to delay. Your mission begins," Orochimaru declared grandly. "At once."

* * *

The trees passed quickly beneath their feet as Naruto and Rei bounded along, their feet barely touching one branch before they leapt for the next. They had crossed the border into the Land of Fire a couple of days earlier, and they planned to follow the road to the Land of Waves, that way they would also be able to keep an eye out for any Leaf Shinobi heading that way, possibly gain some advanced intelligence on what sort of unit Konoha was sending out, what sort of Shinobi they might have to go up against. Naruto was betting on a Chuunin squad with Jonin leadership, but it was impossible to be certain. But it had to be admitted, going out to another country to support a rebellion was probably pretty high ranking as far as missions went. It wasn't the sort of thing you handed to a wet-behind-the-ears genin squad fresh out of academy training. Not even the Hidden Leaf was that stupid.

Then he remembered the fact that these where the same people who had actively driven out what could have been the greatest asset to their village ever, namely one Nine Tailed Fox, and considered that it wasn't really possible to underestimate people like that. You couldn't put anything past them.

"Wait," Rei said abruptly, breaking into Naruto's thoughts.

Naruto halted on his tree branch, dropping into a crouch as one hand went for the hilt of his sword, "What is it?"

"Down there, two of them," Rei said.

Naruto inched along the tree branch, and looked down to see two shinobi wearing black cloaks and gas mask tied to a tree on the other side of the dirt track. They weren't wearing headbands, so it was fair to assume that they weren't of the Leaf.

Letting go of his sword, Naruto leapt out of the tree and landed on the ground facing the two bound ninja. Rei was a step behind him.

"So, what have we here?" Naruto said mockingly. "Did you boys run into some trouble."

"Screw you kid," one of the two said. "Who the hell are you?"

"Our names are not important, we are of the Hidden Sound Village, that is all that matters," Rei said.

"Hidden Sound, never heard of it," the ninja who seemed to do all the talking said.

"That's the point dumbass, it's hidden," Naruto said. "Besides, you'll be hearing that name a lot soon enough."

"Who are you, and what are you doing in the Land of Fire?" Rei said.

"You're a couple of punk kids from a nowhere village and you think you're going to interrogate us? Who do you think you are, Konoha ANBU, screw you kid."

Naruto drew his sword and, without saying another word, ran the talkative ninja threw the chest.

"What the hell man?" the hitherto silent ninja said as his comrade died. "Seriously, what the hell?"

"Call it encouragement, talk!" Naruto barked.

"Okay, okay," the surviving ninja. "We're, we were, the demon brothers, missing-nin chunin from the Hidden Mist. We work for Zabuza, he sent us here to kill some old guy, a mission from some suit whose paying the bills for the boss. But we couldn't do the job, because there was a squad of Leaf Ninja with him."

"What kind of Leaf Ninja?" Rei said emotionlessly.

"Genin squad," the Mist missing-nin said quickly, thereby proving that Naruto's lowest opinion of the Hidden Leaf was still higher than they deserved. "Three kids: some raven-haired emo whose got more guts and skill than he looks like having, and a couple of useless brats. But there's another one, there sensei, he's good. Keeps one eye covered up with his headband, he's the one that got us, the one to watch out for. He tied us up, left us here for a patrol. So, listen, now that I've told you everything, you'll let me go, right?"

"Nah, I think I'll just kill you and eliminate all the witnesses," Naruto said.

"What? But you said you'd let me live!"

"No I didn't, you just thought I would," Naruto said, and slit his throat.

"A genin squad," Naruto said, wiping the blood off his sword. "Like they'll be any trouble."

"Indeed, but they do have a head start on us," Rei said.

Naruto chuckled, "Then we'd best get moving, hadn't we?"

* * *

Next time: We meet Naruto's replacement on Team Seven, but who will it be?


	3. In the Land of Waves

Chapter 3: In the Land of Waves

The boatman's face was wrinkled and lined with age, his clothes where patched and threadbare, and his boat looked like it was in need of maintenance as well. He claimed that he had shut off the engine so that no one could hear their approach, but Naruto half suspected it was because the engine was on the blink and might stop working at any moment. Judging by the look of the man he couldn't exactly afford to have it repaired.

The boatman didn't say anything. No one in the boat did. Naruto, his face hidden behind his sound balaclava, sat amidships with an equally silent Rei in the prow. They sat in the silence, as the mist swirled around them in ghostly patterns, and the old rowing boat drifted in toward the Land of Waves.

They arrived at the jetty with a slight bump as the boat jolted to a halt, "Here we are," the boatman said in a hoarse whipser. "This is where you get off."

Naruto nodded, and Rei turned away from watching the water and the land before them to turn her red-eyed gaze upon the man who had ferried them across to the island nation. Naruto brought out a small wad of cash, and held it out toward the boatman. The man, a look in his eyes that was almost desperate, reached forth for his fare and Naruto grasped him hard about the arm and held him fast, using chakra to make his grip as firm as a band of steel.

"We aren't quite finished, yet," Naruto said casually. "We want to talk first, about ninjas."

"Ninjas?" there was panic in the boatman's voice that bordered on terror. "I don't know nothing about no ninjas, honest. You tell Gato that I-"

"We don't work for Gato," Naruto said. "We wouldn't be seen dead taking orders from a civilian slimeball like that. We have standards, don't we Rei?"

"That is correct."

"Un-hunh, you see we work for someone who deserves our service," Naruto said. "Not some jumped up shopkeeper who thinks that just because he can buy us makes him better than us. So, now you know that whatever you say to us it won't get back to Gato or his thugs. So, ninjas?"

The boatman was wide-eyed, confused, his head shook, he stammered, it seemed that he wasn't able to make up his mind what he should do, what he ought to do, anything.

One of the advantages of wearing a balaclava, a bit like Dosu's bandages, was that it hid your face. The disadvantage was that it…hid your face. As a result, Naruto was forced to draw a kunai to make an impression on the ferryman, "I said that whatever you told us was guaranteed not to get back to Gato. However, it appears that the word of myself and my friend isn't enough to reassure you. So let me tell you something else: you seem to be worried about upsetting Gato, and I suppose I can sort of understand that; there are people I wouldn't like to upset myself. But Gato isn't here, I am, so I think that it would be good for you if you were to worry a bit less about upsetting that pint sized suit and worry a bit more about upsetting me."

The boatman was practically hyperventilating, "What are you going to-"

"Rei," Naruto said.

Rei's body flickered in its position on the prow of the boat, and reappeared behind the boatman, holding a kunai of her own close to his eye, which was bulging so from fear that it was almost popping out of its sockets.

"Ninjas." Naruto said calmly.

"Okay, okay," the boatman yelped. "There were four of them, came in on my boat a few days ago. Tazuna was with them."

"The bridge builder?"

"Yes, that's him, they were, like bodyguards or something."

"How many days, exactly?" Rei asked in her eerily calm voice.

"Two, no, three, yes three!" the boatman said. "Please don't hurt me, for the love of heaven I have children."

Naruto said nothing as he reached with his free hand into the pack worn on his back, and brought out a bingo book. Lord Orochimaru had given it to him so that should they encounter Leaf Ninja he and Rei could evaluate the competition. It was unlikely that any Genin would be in here, but he had looked through the Leaf jonin and had found a possible candidate for the man the Demon Brothers had described. He flicked it open to the relevant page and showed the boatman a picture of a silver haired Leaf Jonin whose headband slanted down to cover one eye, and kept the rest of his face covered with a mask, so that only one eye was visible, "Is this the man who led them?"

"Yes, now please let me go, please," the boatman pleaded.

_Kakashi Hatake. Damn._ It was not the leader Naruto would have wished to be facing if it became necessary to go up against the forces of the Hidden Leaf. He was fairly sure that the training he and Rei had received at the Sound was superior to anything academy students received in Konoha, and for that reason was confident of their chances against a superior number of Leaf genin, but the Copy Ninja was something else. A former Black Op captain, with an astronomical black market bounty on his head, he was one of the most feared ninja in the Shinobi Nations. And he possessed a sharingan, one of the great dojutsu that left even Lord Orochimaru in awe of its power. This was not an enemy that Naruto or Rei could face in battle, nor would they stand much chance of deceiving his sharingan eye.

Of course his presence posed a second problem as well, that he might be too tough for the missing nins Zabuza and Haku to stand up to either, and that the Sound Ninja's mission might be over before it had even started.

No, it could not be. After all that Lord Orochimaru had done for him, had given him, he could not slink back from his first assignment a failure. He would not.

They could not afford to waste any more time here.

"Let him go, Rei," Naruto said, releasing his grip on the boatman's arm. "Thank you for your cooperation sir, here's a little extra for the trouble. Get a mechanic to look over the engine." he threw a few more notes into the bottom of the boat as he and Rei got out, not even bothering to look back as they walked away from the coast and left the boatman to it.

* * *

The evidence of a battle was obvious, as Naruto and Rei looked about the landscape on the coast road- if that was not too grand a name for what was little more than a dirt track that happened to run along the coast- and the clear signs of fighting that had taken place there. There was marks in the trees where kunai or swords had scratched deep scars into the bank. There was water everywhere, spreading inland from the sea in a way that suggested somebody had been throwing water jutsu around. Broken and bent out of shape kunai and shuriken, rendered unsuitable for further use, lay scattered here and there, along with the odd bit of dried blood, albeit not enough to suggest that anyone had actually bled to death. Certainly there were no bodies or evidence of bodies being destroyed, which there probably would have been if any Shinobi had died in the action. Still, it was impossible to be certain.

"What do you think Rei?" Naruto murmured.

"Judging by the situation of the battle, it seems logical to conclude that the battle was fought between the Leaf Ninjas for whose presence we now have ample evidence, and a force of antagonists whose identity is less certain but which can be surmised to be Zabuza and the missing-nins from the Hidden Mist," Rei said.

"Yeah…what you said," Naruto said. "Do you think any of them where killed?"

"I doubt it," Rei said. "Which in itself is suggestive."

Naruto frowned, even though nobody could see it on account of the balaclava, "What do you mean?"

"If the Leaf Ninja where defeated, they would either have been wiped out and there would be evidence of that, or they would have been forced to retreat back to the boat, which we know they did not do. Therefore it stands to reason that they were victorious and continued on their way after the battle."

Even though Naruto wasn't as dumb as he had been when he was a little kid in Konoha, he still wasn't the sharpest in the Sound Nine by a long way, "Well spotted."

"What do you suggest we should do now?" Rei asked.

Naruto considered the matter for a moment. They had a two fold mission, one part of which was now threatened with the hindrance if not active opposition of a group of hostile shinobi led by an extremely capable and experienced captain, the other part of which relied in no small part upon accomplishing the first part, since assassinating Gato would be a lot easier without a highly trained Hidden Mist Jonin defending him. So, it stood to reason that they had to do the first part first and the second part second- obviously. But to do it they had to find Zabuza and Haku, and they had to find out more about the Hidden Leaf Ninja they might end up having to fight.

"We'll split up," Naruto said. "You see if you can find any information about Zabuza or Haku, while I see if I can find out more about the Leaf Ninja and their abilities." It had been a few years since he had moved to his new home in Sound, but he had to admit that there was more than a little self-interest in his allocation of assignments. In some ways he might have been a better choice for information gathering than Rei, who had been known to put people off with her emotionlessness, but he could not resist looking in on the people who might have become his comrades in arms if things had worked out differently in his life. See if there were any faces he recognised. Any old- not perhaps friends, for he had never had any, but rather any of those who had treated him slightly less horrendously than everybody else, and thus would die swifter if he found himself with no choice but to kill them. On the other hand, if he saw those there that he remembered doing their best to make life hell for him, he might well take some small pleasure in their pain and their deaths. Not a lot, but a little.

"We'll rendezvous back here at nightfall," Naruto finished.

Rei nodded, "Yes." And she leapt away into the trees, her fight barely making a sound as they touched the branch and soared away again.

Naruto took a deep breath, and composed himself before he too leapt up and away.

* * *

"So much for the great Uchiha clan," the amused, slightly languid voice floated through the trees and the rustling leaves as Naruto crept closer toward its sounds. "It looks as though they might not be restored after all. Not when the number one rookie can't match the smartest kunoichi in the class, anyway."

"Kakashi Sensei," the girl's voice had a whining tone to it, as if she was peeved about something even though as far as Naruto could tell she had been the one being complimented. Naruto didn't see what her problem was. "I didn't do that much better than Sasuke, really I didn't."

"Yes you did," these Leaf Ninjas where a noisy lot, Naruto reflected as he made his way towards the sound of their overly loud voices, and a new voice piped up: more adult sounding than the girl but obviously younger than the other whom Naruto guessed to be Kakashi of the Sharingan. This new speaker had a hard edge to his tone, full of bitterness and bile. "Don't make excuses for my inadequacies, I can't afford to be pampered or flattered. Dammit! Even _he_ is doing better than I am!"

_Don't these people realise that they are in enemy territory? Or do they just have no volume control?_ Naruto wondered.

"Sorry, Sasuke," the fourth voice, whiny like the girls, but in a different way. If the girl's voice brought with it mental associations of a pout, then this voice carried with it the image of a head deliberately lowered, someone sunk into a corner, hoping not to be noticed.

"What are you apologising for," the bitter one, Sasuke, snapped. "Do you honestly think it's your fault that my skills are lacking? What are you, stupid?"

"Um, I don't know, I was just-"

"That's what I hate about you, your always apologising, always acting like you have something to be sorry for even when it isn't true, do you have any idea how annoying that is?"

"Sorry, but-"

"Stop apologising, I hate you!"

"Sasuke, try not to kill Shinji, it would mean a lot of paperwork when I got back home if you did," Kakashi's voice still carried its tone of light amusement, as if he _wasn't_ commanding what appeared to be an incredibly fractured unit on an incredibly dangerous mission. "Don't let him get to you, it's just his way."

"And you call yourself our Sensei, how can you put up with this?"

Naruto reached the outskirts of a clearing the forest, and suppressed his chakra as he hid behind a particularly thick tangle of leaves to look down on what was happening the clearing itself.

It was confirmed, the Leaf Jonin was definitely the Copy-Ninja. The silver hair, the face mask, the one covered eye, it was all both distinctive and definitive. The Sound had a real opponent here, and if it came to battle they would have a real fight on their hands.

However, judging by the way that he was leaning on a pair of crutches, and not moving much, it seemed like for the moment he posed no immediate threat. Evidently the battle of a few days earlier had taken its toll upon him. That was good. It gave them a window of opportunity.

With him where the three members of a standard sized genin team, who looked to be doing the tree climbing exercise to varying degrees of success.

Farthest from Naruto, almost opposite him across the clearing, was a pink haired kunoichi with green eyes and a wide forehead, wearing all red. She was sitting on top of a high tree branch, swinging her legs beneath her and- he had been right- pouting as she watched the efforts of the two boys beneath her.

One of them was dressed in a blue tunic with white shorts, and wore his raven hair long so that it framed the sharp features of his face. His eyes two where fully black, opal orbs which could hold and hide a well of suppressed emotions. He was glaring at the other boy, at the world in general, with such disgust that Naruto had no difficulty in connecting him with the angry, bitter voice he had heard. Sasuke. Sasuke Uchiha, he remembered the boy a little from his early days the Ninja Academy, before he had left the leaf. An arrogant kid who kept to himself, had sort of home trouble, Naruto didn't know the details because nobody would talk to him long enough to tell them to him, so that was about it. But he had heard Sasuke's name mentioned since then, in the councils of Orochimaru. Though what would the Lord of the Sound want with a Genin of the Leaf?

The third member of Kakashi's team had short brown hair and blue eyes. He was dressed in a plane white T-shirt and black trousers, with white sandals rounding the combination off. His face was soft, feminine even, and to Naruto's eye it seemed incredible that someone who looked so vulnerable had ever become a shinobi.

Shinji, he had been called. Naruto pegged him as the weak link of the team.

No one he remembered with any degree of fondness. Nobody who had earned any mercy from him. All day he watched them attempt to climb the trees, and by the time night fell he had gained the impression that the only one worth fearing was Kakashi Hatake, because his genin team was certainly nothing extraordinary.

Darkness fell, and the Leaf Ninja left the clearing, and Naruto turned back to rendezvous with Rei. Possibly she had found a lead. If not…Naruto could feel a plan already forming in his mind.

* * *

_Author's Note: And so everyone's favourite whiny bitch has become the third member of Team 7. As you can tell I'm fast making myself overdrawn in the character crossover department. I promise there'll be no more until we reach the pre-timeskip fillers. Probably. Please read and send me your thoughts. _


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